The reason I do three is purely because of my altitude and location in comparison to agriculture - it also allows me to specify exactly what type of honey I'm selling.

With regard to the timing - it's quite interesting over here. After the spring harvest, if you leave it a week or two too late then they will empty the hive because there's a natural gap between the local crops coming into flower and the natural stuff coming into flower - so by removing the spring stuff when I do I'm effectively forcing them to forage further afield (where there is loads of stuff).In the summer I could just stack supers on till August but then I'd end up with honey that was a mix, where as by doing to seperate harvests in the summer (three if the weather is really weird) then I can say with a degree of certainty that the first summer harvest is just forest honey with some forest flowers, however the second harvest I can say with certainty that the VAST majority of it will be sun flower and / or clover.

The market over here is a little more 'choosy' so being able to make these distinctions makes a difference come sales time (and there are obvious differences in the different type of honey such as colour, taste, time to crystalise, etc).

The market over here is a little more 'choosy' so being able to make these distinctions makes a difference come sales time (and there are obvious differences in the different type of honey such as colour, taste, time to crystalise, etc).

Paul.

That is interesting...I get two different types of honey depending on when I harvest. My market is choosy too, prefering the later summer honey since the spring honey is stronger flavored and almost minty. I got sick of trying to describe what honey was what and just started combining them back together for simplicity. That and I'd end up with all spring honey and no summer honey. Much simpler to have just one kind.

with the drought's the last couple of years here we have really only had one flow a year, black berries and such which bloom first the bee's mostly used to raise brood, about the only surplus we got has been tulip poplar, easy to tell, just hold it towards the light and it is a dark red colored.

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There are guys on here that produce alot more honey than I do! ;) Just ask Bjornbee and Bullseye Bill if they'll share their totals!

I pulled just over 5000 pounds this year, I hope I didn't pull too much as I didn't really get them fed up to the point I wanted to for the winter. It was about a 60 pound per hive year, a little bit better than average for Kansas.

I started with 2 hives that were 2 years old. I bought 4 pakages in April. Ended up spliting one of the new hives. I made one harvest the last week of August. At harvest time I had 7 hives total. My total production was about 310lbs.

I pulled just over 5000 pounds this year, I hope I didn't pull too much as I didn't really get them fed up to the point I wanted to for the winter. It was about a 60 pound per hive year, a little bit better than average for Kansas.

sounds like a good year bill, what did you do with it all if I may ask?

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THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 YEARS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

Never be afraid to try something new. Amateurs built the ark, Professionals built the Titanic